The place for great and not-so-great nearly forgotten videos from the decade of Miami Vice, mullets, and acid wash jeans. All praise to the bands, YouTube, and the original posters of these videos.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Guns N' Roses - It's So Easy

There was never anything easy about Guns N' Roses. The band announced their presence with screaming vocals and howling guitars, and made music that was raw, rough and occasionally ugly -- but it was very, very real. They also brought a level of excitement that rock had not seen in years. For an all-too-brief period in the late 1980's and early 1990's, they were the Biggest Band in the World, before it all went south.

Between 1987 and 1991, the band released four albums, and sold just shy of 90 million units worldwide. Appetite for Destruction, their debut LP, was a #1 record and sold 18 million units in the U.S. alone. So how does a band this big show up on ERV? Well, that's a funny story ...

Back in 1987, after the band recorded Appetite, they decided to release "It's So Easy" as their lead single. The video was filmed at Riki Rachtman's Cathouse club, a run down bar that was popular among up and coming LA hard rock bands. So the video is shot, a rough cut is made ... and the label freaks out. The video is just way too rough to be played in the U.S. In fact, an edited version was rejected by MTV, and Geffen drops the video (and never promotes the single, as far as I can tell).

Later, when "Welcome to the Jungle" is released, Geffen still has a hard time with MTV, but finally gets the station to air the video -- at 5AM on a Sunday. Apparently, MTV almost immediate started getting requests for the video, the momentum built, and ... well, you know the rest of the story.

Years later, the original promo video for "It's So Easy" is leaked and shows up on the internet. Overall, this makes it the perfect video for ERV -- totally rare video from a huge band. Oh, and be warned, the video is somewhat explicit, so NSFW (or kids).